


Wasn't a Suggestion

by NoiraKai



Category: Starfighter (Comic)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-01
Updated: 2014-04-20
Packaged: 2017-12-22 01:53:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 46
Words: 13,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/907492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoiraKai/pseuds/NoiraKai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a collection of askbox drabbles from the tumblr and some other things.</p><p>(chapters 42 and on are new)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. for coreaneggroll

**Author's Note:**

  * For [coreaneggroll](https://archiveofourown.org/users/coreaneggroll/gifts), [Nothing_but_the_Rain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nothing_but_the_Rain/gifts), [asocialconstruct](https://archiveofourown.org/users/asocialconstruct/gifts), [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts), [seb_the_owl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seb_the_owl/gifts), [Vennadda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vennadda/gifts), [the_nerd_word](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_nerd_word/gifts), [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keeler/Abel part 1

“Abel, I seem to keep misplacing my green hilighters.” 

Abel felt his face flush with heat. 

“Would you know anything about that?” Keeler asked as he narrowed his eyes. 

Abel tried as surreptitiously as he could to throw the marker out of his pocket and far away on the floor. "You mean that hilighter over there, sir?" he said, and pointed. 

"Oh! Thank you so much for finding it!" Keeler exclaimed with smiling eyes. "I could just kiss you!" 

And then he did. 

The end.


	2. for Raven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keeler/Abel part 2

"Oh! That tickles," Abel giggled, wiggling around as Keeler slid something cold and wet on his backside. He craned around to see. "What did you draw?" he asked, playfully but sternly.

But as much as he tried, he couldn't see what he'd done... the only evidence that Keeler had done anything being the green hilighter in his hand. Abel rubbed his hand on his butt to get the hilighter off.

"NO! What are you DOING! It was a proclamation of my eternal love!!! Keeler + Abel = 5eva!"


	3. for Riko

Sacha took a deep breath and then exhaled. This would be a difficult mission. It would take stealth, and cunning and courage. And there was always the possibility that someone would get hurt. Sacha looked sideways at Aleks and then back at the TV. He casually stretched himself out in a yawn, reaching over at the last second to put his arm over Aleks' shoulder. He smiled a secret smile as Aleks shifted a little closer, warm against his side, and went back to watching the movie. 

Mission successful.


	4. for tomoscloud

"Is everything good on your end?" Bering asked in his rough colonial voice, as they met in the empty corridor.

"Everything's going smoothly. We're making progress on the engine," Cook answered quietly, as he ran a single light finger down the arm of Bering's jacket.

"Good," Bering grunted, and gave Cook a swift, tickly kiss on the cheek. "No one suspects a thing," he said as he walked away.

Cook watched him disappear through the door with regretful eyes. "And neither do you, my love."


	5. for the_nerd_word

"Do you think those two are doing it?" Porthos' fighter asked, after they had passed Phobos and Deimos in the hall.

"They better not be!" Porthos blurted before he could stop himself. He could feel his face redden, only partly out of jealousy.

His fighter just looked at him and rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me YOU'RE fucking that whiney snob," he groaned.

"Nope, just friends," Porthos answered and pressed his lips together.

All he knew was that whiney snob had better keep his hands off of Deimos.


	6. for asocialconstruct

"Don't worry, my darling. He'll come back to us," said the older man beside him. "He'll be back in our bed soon enough."

Keeler smiled at that thought, reaching over to brush a lock of hair out of the sleeping blond's eyes. Hoping somehow he would feel it, he squeezed Abel's hand, and let the fingers of his other hand lace together with Cook's.

The nurses wouldn't kick him out as long as the Commander was there. He could stay, so he could be there when Abel woke up. Because he had to wake up.


	7. for Nothing_but_the_Rain

"MYSHONOK!" Cain barked as he and Abel stepped through the door. "What are you doing snooping around in our room?!"

Deimos slowly turned, quirking up an inquisitive eyebrow and holding the black lacy panties delicately in one hand, and the pink ones in the other.

Cain's face was carefully blank, and Abel just looked at the ground, blushing.

"Well..." Cain shrugged. "There's an extra pair for you. I think you'd look good in lace..." his mouth curled into a devious smirk. "But not as good as me."


	8. for vennadda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cain/Bering part 1

"Well you're here early - OH!" Bering's face fell as the door opened. It was just Cain.

And Cain didn't look too pleased either, shielding his eyes with his hand so he didn't have to look at a very hairy Bering in nothing but a towel. "Just - just wanted to tell you that the plan is still working, sir," Cain stammered.

"Very well, son. Dismissed," Bering said gruffly.

He closed the door and went over to the mirror, pouting a bit with disappointment that Cain hadn't liked what he'd seen.


	9. for seberu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cain/Bering part 2

"Well you're here early - OH!"

Sculpted and covered in coarse hair, Bering in nothing but a towel was the most beautiful thing Cain had ever seen. He looked away and shielded his face, so the older man couldn't see him blush. "Just - just wanted to tell you that the plan is still working, sir," he stammered.

"Very well, son. Dismissed," Bering said with his incredibly sexy voice.

After the door closed again, Cain's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fainted like a girl.


	10. for coreaneggroll

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part of the Cain and Abel have bunk beds AU

"D-Deimos?" Abel asked quietly. The fighter quietly shifted over to face the blond who had been spooning him. "You're better than a night light," Abel whispered.

Deimos kissed him gently on the forehead and petted his hair.

"Deimos?" came a voice from the bottom bunk. "I'm scared too..." Cain whined, obviously lying.

"NO! Deimos is MY night light," Abel exclaimed and held the tiny fighter to his chest.

"Hmph," Cain pouted, shaking the bunk bed as he shifted uncomfortably and punched his pillow.


	11. for eliphant

Deimos looked down at the man beneath him, curling a hand into his raven locks as Cain pressed a gentle kiss to the head of his cock, dragging his lower lip on the head and looking up at him with surprisingly slutty eyes.

"Mmmhhh," Cain grunted, causing Deimos to shudder with pleasure. Eyes still locked with Deimos, he gave his cock another mouthy kiss, before slowly swiping a soft tongue over it like he was licking an ice cream cone.

"You taste good," Cain growled, and then took him in deep.


	12. for Riko

 

 

"Oh yeah… right there…" Cain groaned, as Abel worked his fingers into Cain’s shoulder, kneading out a knot as the Fighter sat boneless against the mattress, cigarette glowing in his hand. “Okay… ohhhh… that’s good," he grunted, as he rested his head on Abel’s arm.

Abel leaned into him, nuzzling Cain’s hair and breathing deep. He smelled like smoke, and sweat, and sex, and —

Abel’s eyes popped open wide. “Cain?!" he exclaimed accusingly.

"Hm — what?" the Fighter responded drowsily.

"Why do you smell like berries?"

"What?! I don’t smell like berries!" Cain scoffed, sounding way too guilty.

Abel narrowed his eyes with suspicion. “Have you been using berry scented shampoo or something?"

"N— no?!!" Cain insisted, turning his head to look at Abel and scrunching up his face, looking as guilty as he sounded.

Abel just looked at him sideways, raising up a single discerning eyebrow.

Cain took in a puff of smoke, looking very much like he was trying to buy time and think of an explanation. "Okay, okay!" he said finally in surrender. “It just… makes… my hair easier to manage… and maybe it smells good…" Cain confessed, his face caught between pouting and holding back a smile.

Abel just rolled his eyes and let out a nervous chuckle as Cain reclined back against the bed. “Geez, Cain, sometimes it’s like you’re having some kind of love affair with your hair," he chided, and vindictively messed up Cain’s raven locks with his fingers.


	13. for me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cain and Abel watch a movie.

“Well, this is ridiculous…”

“Shh!” Abel gave Cain a poke in the side with his elbow, and shoved another handful of popcorn in his own mouth, in order to lead by example.

“This is so unrealistic!” Cain insisted. “I don’t understand why you like this shit.”

“Caim!” Abel said with his mouth full, shifting under the Fighter’s arm to look at him. “Dish iz a classhic!”

“These… what are they called, storm trooper guys? Have shot like a bazillion blaster bolts and haven’t hit  _anything_!”

Rolling his eyes in time with a sigh, Abel just glued his focus back to the screen, trying to enjoy the movie.

Cain scoffed, folding his arms and burying himself further into the couch. “Tch, if our Fighters had aim like this we’d be fucked,” he muttered.

Abel pursed his lips and agitatedly sucked a fragment of popcorn kernel out of his teeth with his tongue, while simultaneously plotting Cain’s demise.

“And I’m not a physicist or anything, but the last time I checked, light doesn’t cut through stuff.”

“Cain!” Abel barked, setting the popcorn bowl to the side, out of harm’s way.

“What? It’s just a crappy old mov— mmmm….”

Abel grabbed the front of Cain’s shirt and shoved their mouths together, for what he hoped passed as a Hollywood kiss. At least this was one way to keep him quiet. He threw a leg over Cain’s lap and took an extra sharp nibble at his blasphemous tongue.


	14. for coreaneggroll

"Ccccc-- Ccccc-- Cccc-- Cain?" Abel stammered, as his teeth chattered inside of his skull.

"Mm--Huh? What is it Princess?" Cain answered. It was unclear whether he had actually woken up or was just talking in his sleep.

"Sss-- Ssstop hogging the coverssss!" Abel whined, pressing himself up against Cain's back and shivering almost violently as he wrapped his arms around his fighter, and buried his face.

A lazy smile appeared on Cain's face under the warm blanket. Another successful mission.


	15. for coreaneggroll

Once upon a time, Cain and Abel and Deimos were all cute cats. And they cuddled together in a big ball of cute every day for hours and hours.

Kitty!Cain was grumpy but would purr despite himself if you tickled him behind his left ear. If anyone was mean to Abel or Deimos he would bite them on the face.

Kitty!Deimos was shy and liked to hide behind the fridge and make tiny meows at guests and bat at their feet.

Kitty!Abel liked to sleep on the humans' faces so they wouldn't get cold during the night.


	16. I Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based on tomo's Time Loop fic.

“Well it all makes sense, now that I know…” Abel said as he scooted a bit closer to the man sitting in bed beside him, resting his head back on his shoulder. “You two  _are_  a lot alike.”

Bering twirled lazy fingers through Abel’s hair as he continued. “You’re both stubborn,” he accused playfully. “… and horny… and think you’re invincible—”

“—and hot, don’t forget hot,” Bering interjected as he reached for the glass of synthetic vodka on the rocks he had sitting on the nightstand.

“And hot,” Abel conceded with a guilty smile.

“And hopelessly in love with you…” Bering said quietly.

And in that moment, time might as well have stood still.

Abel sat up in the bed, turning to face him as the ice jingled in his glass… looking into Cain’s eyes and wondering for the millionth time in the last thirty minutes since he’d figured it out, how he’d never seen the resemblance before.

“Even if he doesn’t know it yet,” Bering said, with a tiny smidge of heartbreak wrinkling his brow.

A lump of raw emotion was starting to swell in Abel’s throat. He sat there speechless, as Bering ran frustrated fingers through his graying hair.

“I just wish I could save him from all the mistakes he’s gonna make with you. The ones he’s already made with you,” Bering said helplessly as he put the glass back on the table. “Just… promise me that you’ll be patient with him,” he pleaded softly. “With me.”

Abel tried to nod in answer, but quite frankly he was finding it hard to move. He finally mustered up enough strength to breathe, “I promise.”

Bering leaned forward and pulled Abel in to him, Abel’s legs across his lap and his arms around the older man’s neck.  _“I love you so much,”_  Abel said as their mouths crashed together. And Abel realized he had no idea how long it would be, before he’d get to say it to  _his_ Cain, though he knew that the older Cain knew.

“I know, princess,” Bering said, in-between kisses on the part of Abel’s neck that made his skin tingle, the part that only Cain would know was there. “I know…”


	17. for asocialconstruct

“Cain…please!”

“No… No!…”

Encke took a step towards him, but Cain put his hands up, warning Encke not to come any closer.

“Don’t you  _dare_  say that to me now,” Cain hissed at him. But it was pain that Encke saw in his eyes, not poison. “Not now. Not after  _everything_  that’s happened.”

“Cain, I just…” Encke sighed, his hands on his hips, his eyes dropping to the asphalt of the parking lot, and the stains of oil and engine fluid reflecting the blue lights above them, somehow turning something wrong into something beautiful… like Encke had hoped somehow he could do. “Sometimes, I just wonder if it would have been better… if we had ended up together. And Keeler and Abel—”

“So the fuck what?!” Cain’s voice cracked. “Encke, I have a baby now. I have a  _family_. What the fuck do you want me to do?”

“I… I don’t know,” he said quietly.

“I can’t just pick up and leave all of this behind, just because you decide to waltz in one day, and tell me that you love me!” Cain said with a raised voice, gesturing wildly at the balcony upstairs, where Abel and Keeler were hopefully still putting the baby to bed.

Encke found himself shouting too, but started over with a whisper through gritted teeth. “I KNOW — I know that, Cain, but I just couldn’t hold it in any longer… I just needed you to know,” he said wearily.

“Well now I fucking know,” Cain said with cold eyes. “You happy?”

Encke just looked at him and sighed, knowing now that none of them would ever be.


	18. for coreaneggroll

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> warning on this chapter for suicidal thoughts.

Abel finally found him sitting on a catwalk in the engine room of the ship… legs hanging over the side, a bottle of god-knew-what in one hand, and a revolver in the other. His heart skipped a beat, his legs betraying him as he walked closer to the Lieutenant.

He sat beside him, partially because it seemed like the thing to do, and partially because he wasn’t sure he could stand anymore, weary from grief and lack of sleep and the adrenaline finally abandoning his body.

“Central is looking for you, Lieutenant,” he said, trying his best to sound normal about it. Maybe that was what all of them needed… just a little bit of normal. “They sent me to find you.”

“I’m not going back,” Encke said, his voice broken and raw from too much booze and too much crying. “I can’t go back.”

“Encke…” Abel reached out timidly, wrapping his hand around one of the rungs of the catwalk and placing it gently on the other man’s shoulder. “Encke, please don’t do this. We need you. Please… give me the gun,” he demanded, trying to keep his voice from shaking.

“I failed.” The words came out as barely more than air, hardly registering in Abel’s ears, over the hypnotic pulsing of the gigantic engines underneath them that rattled his very bones.

“No.” Abel shook his head insistently. “You didn’t fail. Encke… it’s not your fault that the Colterons were shooting at us!” he pleaded. “You can’t blame yourself, as if it was you who pulled the trigger!” he said, only realizing as the words escaped his mouth, that perhaps that was not the right thing to say.

His breath caught in his throat, as he looked down in horror at the gun in Encke’s hand, which was starting to twitch.

Encke held the revolver up, looking at it with eyes that weren’t really seeing anything at all.

“Encke, please,” Abel begged helplessly.

Then there was nothing but the pulse of the engines and the beating of Abel’s heart, as he watched Encke dangle the gun out in front of him, and defeatedly drop it into the vast opening below.


	19. for seberu

Cook lay awake in the darkness, staring up at the ceiling, having given up on trying to sleep. Unbelievably, Bering was out like a light, having either ignored or not understood, what Cook had to admit he hadn’t really said out loud.  _‘_ I just don’t feel like it… I’m just tired… I just had a rough day.’

_Because I found out about you and Cain,_ he had left out. And even now, his heart and his mind were racing, pounding, spinning with all the things he wasn’t supposed to know but did.

He knew things like this happened, of course. It was always an unspoken, open secret, that there were just certain things that Fighters did, to manipulate, to control, to establish dominance. But Cook had sincerely believed that all that was long behind them, now that they were Commanders, now that they were above it all.

_I’ve been such a fool,_ he thought to himself.

He wouldn’t tell Bering, of course. He was sure that wouldn’t do any good. No, he would just let the questions go unanswered, like how many times it had happened, and how long it had been going on, and if it meant anything, if Cain was the only one, and if Bering really even wanted him in his bed, even now. He would just let the questions eat at him, until there was nothing left. That thought seemed easier, to just fade into nothingness, rather than face anything that claimed to be real.

Cook shifted over on his side, facing the peacefully sleeping man beside him.

Unfortunately, Bering stirred, stretching out as he opened his eyes. “Hey…” he said grumbly. “Can’t sleep?”

“No…” Cook said, the lump in his throat disabling him from saying anything more.

Bering shifted closer to him, taking Cook into his arms so his chin was on top of Cook’s head. “I love you,” he whispered, once they were both still and settled again.

Cook didn’t say anything, didn’t move a muscle, didn’t even allow himself to breathe… just squeezed his eyes tight, to let a heavy tear roll down his cheek. 


	20. for the_nerd_word

Porthos keyed open the door to Phobos’s room, stepping in and grinning to himself as he saw what the other blond was doing.

“No one’s gonna drag you up, to get into the night where you belong…  _but where do you belong…”_ Phobos sang in a falsetto voice, wiggling his butt rhythmically to music that Porthos couldn’t hear, as he folded a pile of laundry.

Porthos leaned back against the door, folding his arms as he watched Phobos dance and sing slightly out of key.

“I saw the sign, and it opened up my eyes, I saw the —” and then Phobos turned around and saw Porthos.

“Uh!” he squeaked as he pulled out his earbuds. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Not long,” Porthos answered, as he walked up to the blushing Phobos and gave him a short kiss on the cheek and a slightly longer one on the lips. “Nice ass,” he said, reaching around and giving it an appreciative squeeze.

“It isn’t polite to sneak up on people like that,” Phobos admonished.

“Hmph,” Porthos grunted. “Whatcha listening to anyway?”

“Oh, just some old music. Ace of Bass.”

Porthos raised a skeptical eyebrow, as he slumped onto the bottom bunk. “Really?”

“What? It’s good! This album got me through a lot of my angsty teenage years!” Phobos argued.

“Whatever, just… finish your laundry so we can do  _stuff_ …”

“Fine…” Phobos said with an aloof upturn of his nose, putting his earbuds back in. “Life is demanding, without understanding!” he continued, as he pulled two socks together and placed them neatly in a drawer.

Porthos sat there watching him, quietly humming along where Phobos couldn’t hear, lipsyncing the words whenever Phobos wasn’t looking. He would never admit it, but he knew all of the words, too.


	21. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> part of mirax3163's 'Jacket' AU

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

Aleks was always reminded of what a shitty apartment he lived in, when anyone actually knocked on the door and the whole room shook. And it was lucky, because the vibration and not the noise was what made Aleks jump a foot in the air. He pulled off his noise-cancelling headphones and cocked an ear toward the door, to make sure he’d heard correctly.

 

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

And the instant the noise started again, he was up and racing for the door, pressing his hands up against the cold and his eye against the peep hole.

He froze when he saw Sacha, standing there, trying not to look impatient as if he knew Aleks was watching him, hands entrenched inside the pocket of his hoodie, his head tilted slightly down like he was somehow too tall for the red sky above his head.

He knew why Sacha was there. And in a way, it made Aleks not want to let him in. For all the sooner he would leave once he had what he wanted.

Sacha was raising his fist to knock on the door again, so he opened it before Sacha could, his hand instead just jutting forward into the doorframe and causing the man outside to slightly lose his balance. They stared at each other for a moment before Sacha recovered.“Fuck it’s cold! Was starting to think you weren’t home, Myshonok…” he panted, a shiver cracking his voice as he pushed past Aleks and moved with rushed strides into the room.

Aleks closed the door against a gust of wind, before turning around to look at Sacha. He put his hands in his pockets and stared blankly, as if he didn’t know what Sacha was there for.

“I, uh, I should get my jacket from you,” Sacha said, but all that Aleks caught of it was the strange, almost apologetic tone that he said it in.

Aleks frowned, shaking his head shyly in confusion.  _“Pa’ruski?”_

“Shit! Sorry…” Sacha exclaimed, grabbing the back of his hair and wincing at the oversight. “Uh…  _sorry, I’m here for my jacket,”_ he continued in Russian.

Aleks avoided looking at the other man as he tried to think of some excuse.  _“Sorry? What jacket?”_ he tried, but ended up not being able to keep a straight face, and so the question came out more flirtatious than he’d meant it.

“ _Heh, yeah, it’s fucking freezing riding my bike,”_ Sacha explained with a shrug, his face melting into a smirk.  _“Though it looked pretty good on you,”_  he confessed.

Aleks gave Sacha a tiny smile for that, as he started forward towards the bedroom.  _“Wait here Kotyonok*_ ,”he said. Sacha lifted the hoodie above his head, his grumble of displeasure muffled underneath as he wrestled to get it off.

—————————

He’d left the jacket hanging on a chair, almost like some kind of centerpiece to his otherwise sparsely furnished and decorated room. It was heavy, and so warm and inviting in his hands, and Aleks just brought it up to his face one last time, to smell the smoke and leather and all of the bombardment of his senses that reminded him of Sacha. Everything that he had become, and all the years that they had been apart, and yet somehow, cutting through all of that, there was a hint of something familiar that bled through… something that had once been the only thing that Aleks could call home.

He was taking too long, and he knew it even before he heard the creaking of the hinges that meant Sacha had come looking for him, even before he heard the hushed and somewhat annoyed growl as he mumbled Aleks’s name and pushed the door open the rest of the way.

And so Aleks was caught standing there in the middle of the room, his face half buried in the jacket, his eyes widening for just a moment with what was just residual fear from someone he had been long ago.

Feeling a squeeze of defiance in his heart, he threw the jacket over his back, and slipped his arms into the sleeves, before jumping backwards onto the bed. He sat there watching the almost entertaining sequence of emotions flicker across Sacha’s face –- surprise, and amusement, and suspicion, and  _avarice_.

Aleks shifted on the bed, leaning back onto his hands, as the other man took a single, demanding step forward. He gave Sacha a look that he hoped was equal parts, “I’m not the innocent defenseless boy you left behind and forgot about,” and “I might just be willing to let down my defenses anyway.”

Too quickly, or perhaps not quickly enough, Sacha closed the space in between them, standing tall over Aleks and fidgeting with the collar of his coat.  _“It does look quite good on you…”_ he said with a smile.  _“I’m… not sure which would be better…”_

Sacha slowly reached into the jacket, and curiously ran a finger over Aleks’s collarbone, as if he’d just discovered that Aleks had skin.  _“Should I leave it on you?”_ he said quietly. _“Or… take it off?”_

Aleks answered the question by reaching up suddenly and grabbing Sacha’s head by the hair, kissing him desperately as he mumbled a protest against Aleks’s mouth.

Sacha half pulled away, looking at him like he was the one that was afraid now, before lunging forward with demanding lips on Aleks’s lips, and wandering hands inside of the coat.

Aleks shifted his shoulders, almost shimmying in a hurry to get the coat off, letting Sacha pull it to the side as they continued to kiss, the feeling almost familiar even though they’d never done it before.  _“Doma*,_ ”he was horrified to hear himself say, his heart leaping in his chest with it and sending sparks of electricity all the way to his fingertips. But luckily Sacha didn’t hear it — or at least he didn’t think he had — too busy bending further over the bed, and pushing Aleks down on his back, and running his half-gloved hands up the base of Aleks’s skull and into his hair.

He kissed Sacha greedily, all lips and teeth as he slid slender hands down his chest and further down, pulling at Sacha’s tank top and twisting his fingers into it in a silent order that it be taken off.

But half-gloved hands grabbed his hands and pinned them up above his head, as Sacha buried his face in Alek’s neck, sucking and kissing and murmuring all at once.  _“I can’t –- fuck —”_ he managed.  _“I can’t stay —”_

Aleks shook his head frantically, wrapping his legs around Sacha’s waist and pressing them closer together and kissing him deep until it seemed like their tongues might never come untangled.

Finally, Sacha pulled away again, only just far away enough to touch his nose to Aleks’s cheek.  _“I’m sorry. I can’t,”_ he whispered hoarsely, laying a flat hand against the side of Aleks’s hair and petting it affectionately. Aleks melted again as Sacha slowly leaned in for one last short kiss, which Aleks turned into several last short kisses, as Sacha tried to say goodbye.  _“Next time… okay? –- I have to go –- Next time…”_ he breathed and then pulled away for good.

Aleks just lay there, watching him stand up straight and put the jacket on, not sure whether he should feel like a fool or an utter fool. He swallowed hard and lifted himself up off the bed, staring quietly as Sacha straightened his clothes and occasionally glanced in Aleks’s direction.

Without warning or another word, Sacha stomped suddenly out of the room. Aleks sat there, feeling a shiver run down his spine and not from the cold. So an utter fool it was to be, then. He dropped his head down into his hands and closed his eyes.

FOOF

Aleks jumped as something heavy and soft dropped on top of his head, messing up his hair as it slid off his face, revealing Sacha standing once again in the doorway.

Aleks looked down at the sweatshirt, and back up at Sacha, who had a knowing smile on his face.  _“Hold onto that for me,”_  he said, before he pulled his collar up around his neck and walked out of sight.


	22. some random thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a random thing I wrote based on the idea of Abel being a clone of one of Cain's previous navigators. Just an idea for Divided that got scrapped pretty quickly.

The tiny blond thinks that he’s being sneaky, slowly pulling back the covers and crawling into Cain’s bed. But he’s not sneaky at all, and Cain’s not even close to being asleep, too wired and alert from another dog fight, and he senses him there before he’s halfway across the room. He allows Abel to cuddle up against his back before he says anything. 

“What do you want?” he grumbles.

“Can we sleep together tonight? Please?”

“Urrrggghhh…” Cain complains, but shifts over to wrap his arms around Abel anyway. “Fine, whatever. But you better not snore.”

“I don’t snore as much when you hold me,” Abel argues poutily.

Cain snorts at that. As if cuddling could fix a once-broken nose.

Some amount of time passes before Abel pulls Cain back from the edge of sleep. “Cain?”

“Mmmm?”

“Do you ever think… about all the time we wasted?”

“’D’you mean?” Cain mumbles.

“All that time that we could have been, you know… but we didn’t know –- we didn’t know that we were… you know…?” Abel reminds him vaguely.

“You mean all the time we could have been fucking, but you were too fucking shy to say that you wanted it?” Cain reminds him back, leaving out the part about how he might have been a little shy, too.

“Yeah… that. Do you ever think about it?”

“Nope,” Cain says matter-of-factly, hoping that will be the end of the conversation.

“Oh…” Abel says, sounding a bit hurt.

Cain rolls his eyes, can tell that he’s made a mistake and now has to fix it. “I’m too busy thinking about all the future times I’m going to fuck you, as opposed to all the past times when I didn’t fuck you,” he clarifies.

“So… if you could do it all over again,” Abel presses, now that Cain is playing along. “Would you?”

Cain gives him a confused look.

“If you could go back… and do things differently with me, would you do it?”

“Sure, baby,” Cain shrugs with a placating smile. “I would have fucked you the first day we met, if I had known you’d be into it.”

“Okay. Well…” Abel suddenly gets very serious. “Cain… if something happens to me…”

Cain frowns darkly, causing Abel to have to pause and regain his composure, pressing his lips together so the scar stretches white. “If something happens to me,” he continues. “I want them to make another clone of me, and give him to you as my replacement.”

The Fighter just looks at him, disbelief gripping his heart. “And what-the-fuck good is that gonna do? It won’t be the same! He won’t be the you that you are now, he’ll be the you that you were when they took your brain imprint, as a newbie pilot —”

“But I’ll still love you,” Abel insists.

“No, no you won’t!” Cain practically spits the accusation at him, knowing he’s giving too much away, but too hurt by the thought to care. “You won’t even remember me. You won’t even know who I am!”

“But I’ll –-” the blond stammers. “I’ll fall in love with you again. I just know that I will —”

“No,” Cain says sharply. “We’re not talking about this anymore. Nothing is gonna happen to you.” He pokes a finger harshly into Abel’s chest. “I’m not gonna let anybody hurt you. Now just shut the fuck up about it and go to sleep.”

The blond pouts for a little while, before reaching up and running his fingers through Cain’s hair. “Cain?”

“What,” the Fighter growls.

“Do you love me?”

Cain takes in a very frustrated breath, and lets it out slowly to buy himself time, to think of some way to say yes, without actually saying yes. Because Fighters aren’t supposed to fall in love with Navigators. 

“Come on, baby…” Cain pleads, trying to be cool about it. “Love is just little sparks in your brain telling you that you should fuck somebody.”

Abel scowls at him, obviously very displeased with the answer.

“My brain’s telling me that I should fuck you… does that mean that I love you?” Cain asks, almost innocently.

Abel narrows his eyes, shooting darts of anger in his direction in the dark. “Well, my brain is telling me I should go sleep in my own bed tonight, and leave you alone—”

Cain catches him, pulling him back into his arms before he can run away mad. “Abel…”

“I told you…” Abel interrupts. “Call me Ethan.”

“Ethan…” Cain corrects himself. “I’m just, not even sure I would know if I was in love, you know?” he confesses, hoping it will at least grant him some mercy so he can go to sleep.

“It’s just a word, Cain… I mean, we can call this whatever you want, but it’s what we do that really matters. And you act like you love me. We act like two people that are in love, when you’re not too busy being an ass about it…” 

Cain looks away from him then, swallowing the insult and maybe a helping of shame.

“You’re just too afraid to say it,” Abel accuses. “But why? Why won’t you say it? And why won’t you tell me your real name? I told you mine… It’s not a big deal.” 

Cain tucks a piece of blond hair behind Abel’s ear, and gives him a pitying look. “You may be a spoiled little princess back home, baby… but out here in the black, you don’t always get what you want.”

“I just want you,” Abel says, but sounds more like he wants sleep instead.

“Okay, princess…” Cain sighs, and pulls the blond on top of him, one of Abel’s legs in between his legs, his weight comfortably pressing on Cain’s chest. He breathes deeply, letting his chest rise and fall, so that it will finally lull his Navigator to sleep. 


	23. for the_nerd_word

It had been so long, Encke had forgotten to even miss it. He’d had his share of scrawny, pretty navigators, but Porthos was different… built like a truck, like a  _Fighter_ , covering Encke with the whole weight of his body, pushing him into the mattress, over him, in him, making him come apart. He trembled with every thrust, moving with the man above him, the two of them a tangle of muscle and moans. It had been so long, but Porthos somehow managed to make it seem like no time had passed, holding him close with strong arms as both of them came, Encke with an undignified shout, and Porthos with a strangled swear.

Collapsing on the bed, Encke looked up into the dark with helpless eyes, asking himself how he could ever have forgotten, how good it had been, and how badly he had needed it. Porthos’s laugh was like a clanging cymbal, in time with the drumming of his heartbeat in his ears.

“Heh, miss me?” the blond said with a teasing smile.  _“Aramis?”_

Encke turned and pulled him close, pressing still-desperate lips to Porthos’s lips and slightly nodding in answer. Their arms and legs tangled together as they fought for dominance, making it more like wrestling than making out, as it had always been with the two of them. They both laughed into the kiss, before pushing their lips apart so their tongues could wrestle too.

Encke pulled away, brushing Porthos’s mohawk with gentle fingers. “You kept your hair the same,” he said with quiet delight.

“So did you,” the other man said, massaging the base of Encke’s skull. He gave his former Fighter another hungry smile, playfully biting in the direction of his nose. “I told you we’d find each other again,” he said, and then pulled Encke on top of him to go another round.


	24. for coreaneggroll

Phobos lay on the top bunk, pretending to sleep, but really just pouting up a storm, listening to Porthos’s laughing and the tinny sound of some movie playing on a tablet device.

Then there was the very guilty-sounding shuffling of covers, and a whisper of “Is this okay?” from underneath him.

“You two better not be doing it down there,” Phobos warned Deimos and his guest.

“Phobz, for the millionth time, we’re not doing anything, we’re just cuddling,” Porthos answered.

“Well… you better not be. That’s all I’m saying,” Phobos muttered, shifting on the bunk and pulling the covers more over himself to try and block out the noise.

It was useless though, he could still hear the whispering below, even over the shooting guns and gratuitous explosions of the movie. Obviously they were talking about him. Phobos just rolled his eyes and then shut them tight, trying to will himself to go to sleep.

“You sure?” he heard Porthos say quietly, and then there was more guilty shifting of blankets and sheets. “Phobz—?”

“ _—What.”_ he answered, just a little bit too quickly.

“Do you… want to watch the movie with us?” Porthos asked.

Phobos let out an exasperated sigh, mulling over how to say yes and keep his dignity intact. “Maybe…” he said poutily.

“Well get down here, dummy.”

Phobos shyly climbed down the ladder to the bottom bunk, where Deimos was nestled underneath Porthos’s arm, his smiling eyes reflecting the light of the tablet as they peeked out from under the blanket.

“Well, where am I supposed to go?” Phobos said sourly.

Porthos patted on his hand on an empty spot on his other side, holding his arm up and pulling Phobos close as he pulled the blanket over himself, basking in Porthos’s warmth.


	25. for asocialconstruct

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> part of the WW2 AU

“Keeler… KEELER!!!”

The plane was dipping out of the sky. Cain grabbed the emergency controls, pulling up with expert precision to keep the engines from stalling and the dipping from turning into plummeting. “Keeler, talk to me…”

“Cain… I… oh god…” Keeler voice was strangled and weak through the staticky intercom.

“It’s okay, baby, I’m gonna get us home,” Cain said, trying his best to be calm, shifting the plane away from an explosion of flak on the port side of the plane. “Pierce! You back there? I need you on the radio!”

“Fuck… Cain, I –- MY EYE!” Pierce shouted in his ear.

“Pierce, if you still have one good eye, I need you to fucking use it to help me get us home!” Cain barked at him. “We have to get Keeler home.”

“Cain…” Keeler moaned, sounding even weaker than before.

He didn’t answer, trying to just focus on keeping the plane on course, the stars of a foreign sky his only bearings now. His eyes flitted between the map, and the stars, and the horizon straight ahead of them, watching for flashes of light as more flak filled the air.

“I don’t think –- I don’t think I’m gonna make it home,” Keeler whispered.

Cain swallowed hard, thinking about his options as fast as his mind could race. Crash land the plane in enemy territory to tend to Keeler’s wound’s? Fly like the devil and pray to a god he didn’t believe in that Keeler would make it?

“Give it to me straight. How bad is it?” Cain said calmly, leaning the plane to the right to alter the course, as he finally got his bearings.

“Bad… Cain… it’s  _really_  bad. Oh god, I’m so scared!” Keeler rasped.

 He didn’t want to think about it, shouldn’t be thinking about while trying to navigate and fly a plane at the same time, through a combat zone in the middle of the night. But they needed to say their goodbyes. Just in case.

“Pierce, give us a minute on the comm alone,” Cain said flatly.


	26. for the_nerd_word

Ethos’s eyes darted around the restaurant, and then back at Deimos, who was studying the menu like it was a calculus exam. He was nervous, but he could tell as Deimos looked up at him and smiled, that he was kind of nervous, too.

“Do you… see anything you want to try?” Ethos asked, trying to be loud enough to be heard over the clanging of plates and silverware, but not loud enough to make Deimos even more uncomfortable than he already seemed to be. “If not, we can go somewhere else.”

Deimos gave him a very worried look, and then turned his eyes back down to the menu. Ethos was getting used to his date’s un-talkative nature, but felt even more helpless than usual.

Finally Deimos turned the menu towards him, pointing an uncertain finger at a particular dish called ‘Chicken Chimichanga.’

“Oh… is that what you’re gonna get?” Ethos inquired.

“What…what is it?” Deimos whispered, a pink blush coming over his cheeks at the words.

“Oh! Oh, its, um… it’s like chicken and cheese, wrapped up in a tortilla and fried,” Ethos explained, complete with some hand gestures he wasn’t sure would mean anything to Deimos at all.

Deimos just frowned. “What’s… a tortilla?” he rasped.

“Oh…” Ethos frowned, too, trying to think of a way to explain. “It’s… like bread… but flat? I guess?”

Deimos looked entirely skeptical, and began searching the menu for something else.

Ethos could feel his heart sink in his chest. This date wasn’t going well at all. “I’m really sorry, Deimos,” he said. “We really can go somewhere else if you don’t like it here—”

Suddenly, a hand grabbed Ethos’s hand, interrupting his train of thought. Deimos shook his head insistently, as he laced their fingers together, and gave Ethos a slightly more confident smile than before.

Ethos could tell he was really trying. He smiled back at the skinny Fighter, and squeezed his hand.

Deimos pulled him closer by the arm, leaning up and kissing Ethos on the temple. “I’ll just… have what you’re having,” he whispered in Ethos’s ear, before giving it a playful nibble that made him want to skip straight to dessert.


	27. for anonymous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An anonymous request that was probably ASC :3

Encke let out a lazy groan and closed his eyes, laying flat on his bed in his and Keeler’s humble officer quarters, but it might as well have been heaven. Abel was straddling him backwards, leaning down to suck on Encke’s cock, while Keeler alternated between massaging his taint with his tongue and sucking on his balls. 

Abel moaned in delight, sending an almost unbearable wave of vibrations through his swollen and already-leaking cock. Encke’s fingers dug into the mattress, as his eyes rolled into the back of his head from all the attention.

“Does he taste good?” Keeler asked eagerly.

“Mmmm, oh yeah…” Abel almost moaned the answer.

“Let me —” Keeler pulled Abel to him and kissed him deep, both of them humming in pleasure as they shared Encke’s taste. As he watched, one of Abel’s hands fisted into Keeler’s hair, and one of Keeler’s hands groped Abel’s asscheek. For a moment, they were so lost in each other, that Encke thought the two naked blonds had forgotten about him entirely. 

Painfully hard, he reached down to take matters into his own hands, but Keeler slapped his hand away. “No! That’s for us to do tonight,” he scolded with a playful smile.

Encke found himself biting his own lip as he pulled his hand back, and watched Keeler play with the head of his cock, licking it dramatically like an ice cream cone before stretching his lips open to accommodate Encke’s girth.

Meanwhile, Abel crawled up to him, resting his head on Encke’s shoulder and running a tickling finger over his chest. “Do you want to taste, too?” he asked, looking up at Encke with his big doe eyes. 

He turned his head downward to let Abel kiss him, their tongues swirling around each other as Encke pulled the little blond on top of him effortlessly. He almost growled into Abel’s mouth as Keeler swallowed him deep down below. Abel let out a chuckle as he made a trail of kisses over to Encke’s ear. 

“So…” he murmured deviously. “Which one of us do you want to fuck first?”

Unfortunately, Encke’s alarm went off before he could decide. 


	28. for coreaneggroll

Once upon a time, there was a very bad, bad man named Cain. He did bad things. Once, he double dipped a french fry. D: Which is a felony in the future.

And there was a young, hot, blond policeman who wore very tight pants named Abel. Abel’s friend Keeler had been the victim of the french fry double dipping. And so he was determined to see Cain come to justice.

So, he set a trap at the local Space Burger, a known hangout of Cain and his fellow hooligans. And sure enough, Cain showed up and started causing trouble. Abel jumped out from behind a ficus plant and handcuffed one of Cain’s wrists. “Cain, you are under arrest for crimes against fry-manity.”

Cain showed no remorse. “Fuck you. I do whatever the fuck I want!”

All of the customers watched as Abel led Cain away in handcuffs, and stuffed him into the back seat of his patrol car.

But Cain was a crafty one. As Abel started taking notes on the arrest for his report, Cain started making eyes at him through the rearview mirror.

He knew that he had officer Abel right where he wanted him, when the blond started to blush.

"Hey sweetheart. You know, maybe we could work out some kind of deal," Cain said.

"You can make a deal with the judge," Abel snapped back, trying to sound tough.

"Oh, but I’d much rather make out with you than Judge Bering," Cain teased.

So Cain and officer Abel made out in the back of the patrol car. But Abel made Cain leave the handcuffs on the whole time, and then took him to jail anyway.

Cain was sentenced to 3-5 years but got his sentence reduced by doing “community service,” supervised by officer Abel of course.

And he was never allowed to go to Space Burger again.

The End.


	29. for coreaneggroll

Cain and Abel were lying in bed one night, and Cain was particularly grumpy. Abel was trying to cheer him up, but Encke had been riding his ass (metaphorically) all day long, and so he was tired and in a bad mood.

Abel was forced to resort to his secret weapon: (dun dun dun)

Spider Hand.

He formed his hand into the shape of a spider, and started crawling it along his own chest. ”Oh no! it’s Spider Hand!” he said, giggling.

"What the fuck is that? What the fuck are you doing?" Cain grumbled. "What is a spider?" he added.

"Oh no, it’s going to get you!" Abel teased, and the Spider Hand crawled closer and closer, until finally it jumped onto Cain’s bicep.

"AAAH!! Fuck! Get it off me! Ahh!!!" Cain shouted and flailed.

Abel pulled his hand away and curled into a giggling ball. Once he’d composed himself, he brought out Spider Hand again, and this time, it jumped into Cain’s hair. Cain was so terrified and confused by Abel’s behavior, that he started laughing like he was being tickled.

Then Abel taught Cain about spider kissing (although the origin of the phrase had been lost by that era). And then Abel taught Cain about spider blowjobs. 

But any time that Cain acted up, or did something that Abel didn’t like, he would just bring out spider hand. And Cain would instantly start behaving himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is of course the real story behind that bossy glare in the cafeteria scene. What you couldn't see was that Abel had out Spider Hand.


	30. Castaway Cain

He held Deimos with greedy fingers as the smaller man lowered himself down onto Cain’s cock, his teeth pulling at Deimos’s lip to punish him for making Cain breathless. Even though they must have done it a hundred times before, Deimos always managed to make it look like it hurt exquisitely… still managed to make it feel like maybe Cain wouldn’t quite fit. Cain glared at him with burning eyes, rubbing his thumb over a nipple and clapping his other hand over Deimos’s ass, the loud crack echoing through the room like fire roars through a short fuse. And then a small whimper of protest, as Deimos began to move, barely opening heavy-lidded eyes to watch Cain watch him.

“Uh… unn…  _mmhh…”_  Cain fucked him from underneath, running a wicked tongue over his lip and grunting his encouragement. He curled his lip into a dirty smile as bony fingers wove their way into his hair, and Deimos slowed down, settling his weight to take Cain all the way inside him. Cain looked up at Deimos, beautiful and broken and naked and warm and _his,_ and the other fighter rewarded these unspoken thoughts with a tiny smile, and a soft, lustful kiss on his brow—

And then Cain was alone, jolted back to reality as he started going soft. His body seized with a hacking cough, shuddering violently as he braced himself against it, holding himself together with two arms wrapped around his chest.

He’d lost track of the days long ago, in the never-ending darkness of space; he was sure he lacked the mental fortitude to ask the computer how long it had been. Cain couldn’t remember the last time he’d had something to eat, still occasionally digging through the crates of the escape pod, even though he knew they were empty now. He kicked at the wrapper of a protein bar on the floor, staring at it with dead eyes and wondering if he were hungry enough to reach down and lick off the crumbs.

His imaginary companion reappeared on the bench beside him, silent and forgiving as always, the hallucination of Deimos perhaps the only thing keeping him even partially sane. Deimos just watched, quizzically tilting his head as Cain slowly zipped up his pants, breathing shallow breaths with his head fallen back against the wall.  _"Myshonok,"_  he rasped, before he choked on another breathless cough.  _"Prastitye, myshonok._ I promise you, when we get out of this… I’ll fuck you until neither of us can walk.”

Imaginary Abel had been banished long ago… Abel tormented him with judgmental looks, yelled at him for not taking care of himself, whispered things to him that couldn’t possibly be true. Not anymore… not if Abel saw him like this, starving and shaking and fighting for control of his mind. How could Abel ever love  _this?_

Cain lay down on the bench, resting his head in imaginary Deimos’s lap, and promised them both that they would be saved, repeating the words over and over again until he fell asleep.

 

* * *

 

“Cain? …oh my god… Cain!”

He barely opened his eyes at the sound, lying on his side breathing shallow breaths as the apparition worried over him. A warm hand pressed against his face, and it was then that Cain knew… he must be really dying. His angel of death had taken the form of Abel, just the first sting of cruelty as he began his descent into hell.

“Oh god, you’re so skinny… Cain, can you hear me?!”

“Fuck off,” Cain muttered, and the vision pulled his hands away, looking as hurt as Cain felt. It stared at him for a moment, then scooted closer on its knees.

“Cain, please. It’s me. It’s Abel—”

“No. It’s not,” he growled, and closed his eyes. It would be better if he didn’t talk to it. It would be over faster if he didn’t acknowledge its presence, give in to the hope of it being real.

“Cain…  _Sacha_ ,” Abel snapped at him through gritted teeth, grabbing at his shoulder. “You have to come with me now, I’m here to take you  _home—”_

“Get your fucking hands off of m—” Cain started to shout, but it soon devolved into a cough. “I told—” he choked. “Told you to leave me alone…”

“No, Sacha.” Abel’s voice was heavy and cracking. “I am  _not. Leaving you!”_  And then Abel was crying, because obviously Cain should have been crying; he was on the verge of death and exhausted and hungry and alone… and had compartmented some part of himself that was strong enough to cry and given it Abel’s face.

“Baby,” Cain whispered, reaching out for imaginary Abel’s hand. “Baby you know I’ve never begged for anything… and I wouldn’t be doing it now if you were real…”

“What?!” Abel breathed in disbelief, still somehow unaware of his lack of existence.

“But please… Abel… you being here, just makes this harder. Just please… let me die alone? Please, just get out of my head, so I can die without you watching.”

The apparition scowled. “You… you think I’m not real.”

“ _Of course you’re not fucking real,”_ Cain spat, his throat tightening, his eyes filling up with tears at last. “The one thing… the one thing I want more than anything in the world… except maybe a cheeseburger?” And imaginary Abel  snorted a laugh and sobbed at the same time. “Of course you’re not…”

And it was true… he wanted Abel more, because he deserved Abel less, and that was why it hurt so bad to have him there. It was easier with Deimos, because Deimos stuck to Cain like a shadow anyway, and Deimos had never minded being used. Deimos stayed with Cain because he had to; Abel stayed with Cain, because Abel was a fool. 

“Cain, you’re not going to die,” Abel pleaded. “I’m here to  _rescue_  you—”

“No no no no no, no no no no…” Cain said wearily. “Not you. It would be anyone else but you…”

But Abel just ignored him, leaning in to scoop Cain up and lift him easily into his arms, and carry him into bright, glaring light.

 

* * *

 

Cain woke up in a strange bed, but at least it was a bed, so he couldn’t really complain too much. Deimos lay on top of the covers next to him, just staring up at the ceiling with that surly look he got, whenever Cain showed clear favor towards Abel. Cain turned to face him, but didn’t get far, the tape on the crook of his arm pulling against the hose of the IV and warning him not to move too much. So Cain just turned his head, reaching out with his free hand to touch Deimos’s arm.

The apparition jerked away from him, turning over and hugging himself as he showed Cain his back.

Cain scowled. “You know what? Fine… fucking be that way,” he barked at Deimos, surprised to find that his voice sounded stronger. “Did it not occur to you, that I wanted you too—?”

“Who are you talking to?”

He jerked his head back to the door, and there Abel stood, holding a cup in each hand. Cain didn’t answer the question, just lay there silent, watching him walk over and sit on the part of the bed where Deimos had just been laying.

“Cain, I need you to try and eat something, okay?” Abel said gently. “We’ll be at the hospital in a day’s time, but I need you to help me and the robot nurse take care of you until then.”

Cain let out a frustrated sigh, eyes drifting around the room. Everything felt real, looked real, smelled real… but perhaps that was just what they wanted him to think. Maybe as soon as he gave in, and believed he was in heaven, the whole floor would collapse underneath him and send him to his true fate. “What is it?” he mumbled.

“Oatmeal. And some orange juice,” Abel said, holding them out so Cain could choose.

“I asked for a cheeseburger,” Cain moped.

“Well, I don’t think your stomach could handle a cheeseburger right now,” Abel said. “So oatmeal it is.”

“What does it fucking matter anyway? Fake heaven is stupid.”

“Fake heaven…” Abel let out an exasperated sigh. “Cain, you’re not dead. I’m real. The food is real. But you’re gonna be in real trouble if you don’t eat something soon. So… can you please just man up and eat some fucking imaginary oatmeal, if that’s what you really think? Please?”

Cain narrowed his eyes. “See, this is exactly why I didn’t want you around. You’re always yelling at me. Well, what the fuck good is imaginary oatmeal going to do?! Just fucking leave me alone!” he shouted, and then turned to Deimos, who was watching from a nearby chair. “You can stay,” he added.

Abel just sat there, looking at him with pity in his eyes. “Cain, I’m the only one that’s here. I don’t know who you want… but I’m the only one here to take care of you. So please… if you ever loved me. If you ever cared about me at all, please just eat something. Please.”

Cain set his jaw as he mulled over Abel’s words. “That’s not fair,” he said, as he reached out for the cup of oatmeal and the spoon.

“Yeah well, I’m beyond fair,” Abel said sternly. “Fair is for games. And this isn’t a game, it’s your life. Here, have some orange juice.” Cain took a slow sip and then handed it back to Abel, struggling to hold the spoon in his hand, as he resisted the urge to inhale the oatmeal like a vacuum. Abel set the juice aside, and wiped at Cain’s face with a napkin. “I like your beard,” he said shyly.

“It’s itchy,” Cain pouted, and stuffed another spoonful of oatmeal in his mouth.

“I like it. It makes you look older.”

Cain looked at Abel, really looked at him hard for the first time since his supposed rescue. “You look older, too.”

Abel smiled. “Maybe that’s because I’m real,” he teased.

“Maybe,” Cain conceded, and then went back to finishing his oatmeal, which was gone too fast.

Abel took the cup from him, and handed it to the robot nurse. “I’m sorry if it seemed like I was yelling at you earlier, I just… needed to make you understand.”

“Wasn’t talking about that,” Cain said gruffly. “Was talking about… before.”

Abel shook his head. “Before… when? …The other Abel? The Abel that wasn’t real?”

“Yeah. You… he… was always yelling at me,” Cain answered, looking down at the blankets and away from Abel’s sad eyes.

“What did he say to you? Awful things?”

Cain shrugged. “Just… ‘Cain you have to get up… Cain you have to eat something… Cain you have to take a bath… Cain, stop jerking off, you’re wasting calories.’”

“Hmm…” Abel put a hand on his leg. “Well, that was just a voice in your head, telling you what you needed to hear to stay alive. And if I was a part of that then…” Abel’s voice became hoarse. “That means a lot to me Sacha. That you were thinking of me.”

Cain shook his head, still looking down at Abel’s hand. “I couldn’t. After a while. You kept yelling at me to eat, even when there wasn’t any food. I couldn’t stand up in the shower anymore. So… I made you go away… Deimos took care of me after that,” he confessed.

Abel nodded like he understood. “Deimos.”

“Yeah.”

“And he didn’t yell at you.”

“No…” Cain said apologetically. “He was just… quiet. And there.”

Abel squeezed his leg. “I can be quiet…” he said with a tiny smile. “I can be here.”

Cain reached out, just barely brushing Abel’s fingertips with his own. Abel inched his hand forward until their fingers laced together.

“The ship will be on autopilot for a while,” Abel said quietly. “Do you want me to stay with you? Or maybe you just want to get some rest.”

Cain felt a lump growing in his throat; he could only barely make eye contact with Abel before looking away. “Stay,” he said, and he was pretty sure it was the hardest thing he’d ever said.

“ _Of course,”_  Abel breathed, and crawled up next to Cain, snuggling himself up under Cain’s arm.

He buried his nose in Abel’s soft hair, getting lost in the smell, trying to convince himself that it was real because it didn’t smell like he remembered.

“It’s okay,” Abel whispered after a while. “It’s okay if you have feelings for Deimos too… I understand now. He’s a part of you.” Abel tilted his head up to look at him. “He’s a part of your  _psyche._ And if thinking about him helped give you the strength to survive, just a little bit longer? Then I’m grateful for that. I’m not going to take that away from you.”

Cain ran gentle fingers over Abel’s arm. “I thought you said you were going to be quiet,” he said with a small chuckle.

“Oh! Sorry!” Abel whispered, and curled closer to Cain’s side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This should probably be its own separate post but... meh. I'm lazy.


	31. for the_nerd_word

"You know, it's really okay, Porthos. We can stop if you don't want to," Abel insisted. Porthos took a deep breath. His heart was racing violently. "No, no, I'm okay, really," he said, and Abel gave him a skeptical look. "You don't have anything to prove to me you know," the little blond teased, and giggled, making Porthos frown. "Abel, it's just a scary movie," he said, mostly to convince himself, pushing the button to take it off pause and snuggling closer to his warm, brave companion.


	32. for asocialconstruct

Mer!Cain swished his tail in agitation, as Mer!Encke gave him the evil eye. "If I catch you starting fights in here again, Cain, I'll poke you with my trident," he warned, and the other merman snorted. "Is that a euphemism for something?" he said, subtly mocking his superior. Encke squinted, eyeing his lean muscles and long cyan fins. Cain barely waited for him to say "Maybe," before swimming closer, and entwining their tailfins together sensuously. And that's how the ch 3 extra is gonna start.


	33. for seberu

Bering climbed onto the stool and waved a finger at the bartender, glad he was enough of a regular to not have to speak his order in the ship's raucously busy cantina. Surveying his surroundings, he met eyes with Deimos, who sat on the other end of the bar, hiding a wicked eye behind his hair, a row of vodka shots lined up in front of him and his loud-talking companion. They exchanged silent, secret looks across the chaos, and Bering smirked, knowing he wouldn't be going home alone that night. 


	34. for vennadda

"What did I tell you about typing when I'm trying to sleep?" Cain growled, and Abel glared daggers at him and the pillow that had just knocked him in the back of the head. He grabbed it and pounced on him, bombarding Cain with a flurry of fluffy blows to the face. Their pillow fight quickly devolved into making out, since both of them were mostly naked. Then Abel put the pillow under Cain's hips, and wrapped Cain's feet around his neck, and wore Cain out with sex so he could get some work done.


	35. for heartsung

Deimos stared at his sleeping navigator, building up courage, a frown on his face. He pawed at his fringe again, feeling where he'd slept on it wrong and bent it into a cowlick. He couldn't let Cain see him like this, Cain was a hair guy, dammit! He tiptoed over to the snoring Phobos, and stealthily slipped his hand under the pillow to where the blond's treasured straightener was hidden. He held his breath as he clutched it to his chest and watched Phobos roll over, thankfully still asleep.


	36. for coreaneggroll

Cain hummed as he pressed warm, soft kisses to Abel's backside. "You've got such a sweet ass, Abel," he said huskily, massaging the firm muscle with calloused hands. "Cain," the blond moaned, "Please--Ah!" he squeaked as Cain spanked him sharp and went back to his lazy task, admiring the red blooming on Abel's pale skin. Abel squirmed underneath him as he kissed and licked and bit his way closer to the crevice in the center, getting harder with every frustrated moan that escaped Abel's throat.


	37. for Nothing_but_the_Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> warning for drug use

Cain leaned back, pondering the question, watching thick smoke waft through the air. "Umm... Gerard Butler." Abel raised an eyebrow, then broke into hysterical giggles. Cain snorted, blushing a little. He turned to Deimos. "What about you, myshonok? Which celebrity would you bottom for, huh?" Deimos' eyes were glazed over as he gave a quiet smile. "Scarlett Johansson," he rasped. All three of them burst into sidesplitting laughter, but then they all got turned on thinking about it and made out.


	38. for Riko

"Mmm," Cain grunted into Deimos' mouth. "Fuck." Always surprisingly strong, Deimos pulled him toward the bedroom, keeping his lips tangled up with Cain's as they moved, slow and clumsy. Just to regain some semblance of control, Cain growled and hoisted the smaller fighter onto a table next to the couch, pressing himself between his legs as a lamp crashed loudly to the ground. Completely ignoring it, Cain wrapped the skinny, strong legs around his waist and carried Deimos the rest of the way.


	39. for moonpie

Cain had expected Shady Plan meetings to be more interesting. Apparently so had Keeler. During one of Cook's boring powerpoint presentations, their eyes met, and Keeler raised a brow, giving Cain a sexy look up and down. Eyes going wide, Cain froze, even as the glare went straight between his legs and made him feel hot under the collar. Then Keeler ever so slowly licked his lips, and Cain's jawed dropped in scandal. "You fucker," Cain mouthed, and Keeler just blew him a tiny, promising kiss.

 

 


	40. for violetnyte

Cain frowned as he closed the front door, and heard sniffling in the still silence. Tiptoeing over to the kitchen, the source of the tiny whimpers and desperate gasps for air, he peeked his head around the corner. He frowned more as his own eyes started to water. He had thought the crying was finally behind them. Abel wiped his eyes on his sleeve and went back to dutifully cutting onions. "Oh, princess!" Cain gasped in relief, startling the blond. He rushed in and gave Abel a suffocating hug.


	41. for asocialconstruct

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little summ’m summ’m inspired by A2MOM’s evil!Cain and evil!Keeler from [A Walk Through the Valley](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1010028/chapters/2004333)

Cain curled his lip into a subtle smirk, watching Keeler closely as they mirrored each other’s footing around the ring. He mentally became one with the weapon in his hand, feeling the balance of the hilt in his wrist, the length of the blade where it extended from his arm, never taking his eyes off his opponent and his twin axes.

“Take it back!” Keeler barked at him, demanding, baring his teeth, the scowl on his face stretching and warping the long scar that ran across his eye. The words echoed in the emptiness of the stadium, his own voice the only one cheering him on from the seats.

Cain made a small lunge at him just to see him react… swing the axe in his main hand at nothing but air. He laughed at how shaken Keeler was by what he’d said, how his light eyes were viciously cold even as they burned with desire. “Why should I?” he teased with a devious grin. “It’s fucking true. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, baby, it happens to everybody.”

“No. I’m better than that—” While Keeler was hissing his reply, Cain tilted the sword so it reflected the light right into his eyes, and lunged at him, pushing him out of the ring. The blond only barely parried each swing, managing to make a small cut in Cain’s cheek before he dispatched of the axes, hearing both of their blades sound melodiously as he pinned Keeler up against the wall. Keeler pushed back against him, snarling as Cain threaded the tip of his sword into his beautiful platinum hair.

“You cock sucking  _shit_  of a mother fucker—”

“Haha, only if you ask me nicely,” Cain retorted in a sing-song. He licked his lip, wiping away a small trickle of his blood as he leaned in even closer to Keeler’s face, gaze dancing between his lips and his eyes. “Now the only question is, which do you love more? Me? Or your hair?”

Keeler scowled and pushed Cain off of him. Backhanded him across the face and used the blind spot to twist the sword out of his hand, and then suddenly the fighter’s foot stepped behind him, and Cain was tripping over himself and falling into a cloud of dust at the edge of the ring.

“ _Fuck_ you!” Keeler shouted, stabbing the dirt of the ring where Cain’s head had just been before he rolled out of the way.

“Gah!” Cain gasped, the wind knocked out of his lungs as Keeler pounced on him and crushed him against the ground, hands clawing everywhere trying to hold him in place.

“What the fuck are you doing,” Cain growled, his face pushed into the floor so he had to spit out dust.

“I told you, darling. Fuck you,” Keeler said, equal parts nasty and sweet, as he hastily worked the legs of Cain’s flight suit down to his thighs. Cain heard a quick, wet noise and then Keeler’s fingers were invading him, stretching and making him want to moan.

Cain roared instead and lifted up to buck Keeler off of him, grabbing for Keeler’s throat as he strained to push the blond onto his ass. He quickly overpowered Keeler, straddling him and shoving a hand down Keeler’s pants as he snapped his teeth. If he was gonna get fucked, he was gonna do it his way. 

“Not… until… you say you love me,” he said between ragged breaths, voice made of gravel and gall, as he gripped Keeler’s cock hard against his hole and held him there with a hand on his pulse.

“ _I fucking hate you,”_  the blond whispered venomously through his teeth, and yanked Cain forward by the hair, pushing his lips apart with bruising force. Both of them grunted as Cain sank onto Keeler’s cock, and stopped Keeler fucking his mouth with sharp teeth clamped down on his lying tongue. 


	42. for heartsung

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning for vomit and blood

Abel coughed until all his muscles were sore, until he was a breathless mess bending over the drain of the shower on his knees. He coughed until his body got his organs confused, and his stomach heaved and he gagged and threw up his dinner.

He knew this day would come, didn’t expect it so soon but here he was, laying on the cold tile hurting in a puddle of vomit and his own blood, such a perfect counterweight to the day that they’d told him. All the feeling bleeding back into his body as it had bled out all those months ago, numb as he stared at the floor instead of the doctor’s mouth, as if that would somehow keep the words from reaching his ears.

_"How long do I have?" he asked._

_A long and heavy pause._ _"A couple of years at the most. It’s a very aggressive disease."_

_"Is there any treatment?"_

_The doctor shook his head. “This type of cancer is caused by a toxin that is illegal on Earth. It’s only obtainable on the black market in the colonies. In certain strong-flavored cigarettes.”_

Abel lay there on the cold tile, white fading to black as his vision failed him.  _Cain can never find_   _out._ _He can never, ever know._

Then there was nothing, except a voice shouting at him from too far away, the terrible secret and Cain’s voice bouncing off the black tile walls and rattling Abel’s mind. He was floating, vaguely aware of the slick, hard surface of a flight suit and the warmth underneath as Cain carried him, Abel’s consciousness barely clinging to him like the lingering smell of smoke.


	43. for anonymous

Pulling himself out of the compartment, Abel groaned at the brighter light, pulling his simulation helmet off of his head with some effort, dabbing away some sweat. He watched as the tiny Fighter did the same, not even bothering to acknowledge that Abel was there.

“That was good work,” Abel tried, speaking to the back of Deimos’s head. “But I wish you would remember that you don’t—” Abel halted as Deimos began to walk away, acting as if he hadn’t even heard. “Hey!” Abel shouted. He sprinted to catch up with his replacement Fighter, running in front of him to block his path. “Don’t you dare walk away from me,” he scolded in Deimos’s face.

Deimos barely rolled his eyes and then tried to shove past him, but Abel shoved back, holding him there with a hard glare. Deimos made a threat with his eyes, accented by a sharp motion of his wrist, to partially unsheath the knife Abel knew he had hidden there.

“Okay, okay, I get it,” Abel snapped, throwing up his hands. “You’re a dangerous little fucker and you don’t like me. Message received.”

Deimos’s face darkened somewhat at that.

“Now can you please just get over yourself,” Abel sighed, “so that we can start working together as a team?”

The Fighter looked Abel up and down, seeming to ask who he thought that he was. After a few tense moment, he finally gave in, shifting his stance, folding his arms and quirking up an eyebrow, coolly inviting Abel to speak.

“I was  _going_  to say,” Abel groaned, relaxing as he looked down at him. “I wish you would remember that you don’t have to hold back. I’m a better pilot than Phobos. You don’t have to compensate for me the way you did for him.”

Seeing Deimos’s reaction, he quickly added, “Yeah, I know that sound conceited, but it’s true… Isn’t it,” he demanded.

Deimos pursed his lips, staring at him, his eyes a bit more resentful now than threatening. Then they shifted to the side, as Deimos acquiesced with a tight nod.

“Okay,” Abel breathed a sigh of relief. “Now. Do you have any feedback for me?” he offered.

Hugging himself, Deimos shrugged, and Abel thought he wasn’t going to say anything, but then suddenly he rasped, “You talk too much.”

Abel frowned, his mouth hanging open. He’d never heard Deimos say anything before. His voice sounded different than he’d expected… nice, but different. Processing his words, Abel pouted, not sure how to respond, when he noticed the tiny smirk on Deimos’s face. “And you’re hard-headed, like Cain,” the little Fighter added, a little louder than before. “And you play with your hair too much—”

“Ugh, you’re impossible,” Abel scoffed, a little flirtatiously, giving Deimos another playful shove. It seemed once you got Deimos started, he wouldn’t shut up. “I meant feedback about the sim,” Abel complained.

Deimos clammed up then, just giving Abel a half-hearted shrug, seeming to have run out of steam. “You’re good,” he said quietly. “Really good.”

“Thanks,” Abel answered with a shy smile. “So are you.”

Deimos just knocked his fringe out of his eyes, and strode past Abel with a smug little smirk on his face, as if Abel had told him he was the hottest thing that ever walked on two legs, and Deimos knew it. Abel stood there, blushing a little, eyes wide where Deimos couldn’t see, chewing his lip a bit as butterflies began to flutter in his stomach. 


	44. for ships-that-never-sink

“Okay, but this is the last fucking time I’m doing this,” Cain snarled, sharply pointing one finger, as he held the neck of the traded vodka bottle with the rest of his gloved hand. Deimos just let his eyes dart around the room, avoiding making eye contact since he had nothing left to say.

“Tch!” Cain rolled his eyes and stomped his way towards the door. “After this you figure out how to do this shit yourself. I mean it,” he said as the door shut, leaving Deimos there in the dim light.

~~~

Cain glared at the door chime, grumbling as he pressed it with his thumb about how he wasn’t anybody’s errand boy. How communication was an important aspect of any relationship. He quickly stifled his mutterings when the door slid open.

Cain’s whole body went into combat mode for an instant, as the giant with the eye patch came into view. He dug his feet into the ground, curling his lip and giving him a threatening glare.

“What do you want?” Praxis asked through gritted teeth, his own stance getting a bit wider.

The shorter Fighter steeled himself against a sudden rage. He had made a promise to a friend, and that, like everything else in the whole universe, was more important that Praxis at the moment. “I’m here to see Ethos,” he said with a defensive growl.

Taken aback for a moment, Praxis quickly recovered. “What the fuck do you want with  _him?”_

“Cool it, Cyclops,” Cain groaned, putting his hands up in front of him. “I’m just here to talk to him.”

“You’re not going anywhere  _near_  my navigator!” Praxis barked, stepping out of the doorframe and towering over Cain.

“What’s going on out there?” came a voice from the dimly lit quarters.

“I have a message from Deimos!” Cain called out to him, sidestepping away from Praxis to get some distance between them and make use of his blind spot.

“Oh! You do?!” Ethos exclaimed, rushing out into the bright hall. “Praxis wait! It’s okay.”

Praxis froze mid-lunge, and then looked at Ethos with wide eyes. “Really? Are you… sure?”

“Yeah. Everything’s fine!” Ethos said cheerfully. Praxis gave him a worried look, which quickly melted into a  _touch him and you die_  look when his eyes wandered back over to the other Fighter. Cain just stood his ground, biting his tongue to keep himself from taunting Praxis with some rude remark about his Navigator’s ass.

“Well what did he say?!” Ethos demanded once the door had shut.

Cain leaned back against the wall, trying to be as cool about it as possible. “He says that… he likes you back,” he half-mumbled.

Ethos’s eyes lit up with joy. “Really?!”

“Yeah. But he says he doesn’t understand what you see in him. He says he doesn’t deserve to be with someone like you,” Cain elaborated resentfully, eyes glued to the ground.

“Oh, well… that’s not true… that’s not true at all! Tell him that—”

“Uggh,” Cain sighed.

“No, please, just tell him that he’s wrong. Okay? It might mean more coming from you anyway,” Ethos admitted shyly.

_Bottle of vodka. Bottle of vodka,_ Cain thought to himself, a calming mantra, grinding his teeth together to keep from fucking up the careful truce that had developed between himself and Praxis’s navigator.

“Fine, I’ll tell him,” he grumbled, rolling his eyes.

“And tell him that…” Ethos stopped mid-sentence, pondering something over with a finger over his lips. “Tell him that I’d like to meet him sometime. You know, just to hang out, and… well… what does he like to do?” Ethos asked with a shrug. “Do you know?”

Cain knocked his head back against the wall. He sighed again, knowing he should just shut up. “Anime,” he huffed.

“W-what?”

“He likes old Japanese anime cartoons,” Cain snapped, giving Ethos a warning glare not to test his generosity. He pushed off of the wall and quickly strode past the curly-headed navigator. “That’s all you’re getting out of me, kiddo, you’re on your own,” he said over his shoulder, straightening his jacket as if somehow that would help him regain some of his manhood back.

“Cain!” Ethos called out. “Wait!”

Cain stopped, grinding his teeth for another moment before glaring behind him.

“Thank you,” Ethos said quietly, almost just mouthing the words as he tried to hide his beaming smile.

Cain just tched at him and turned back to saunter down the hallway, grumbling something about crazy kids, and wondering to himself if he should share some of his vodka with Abel when he got back to their room. 


	45. for anonymous

Abel made him go slow, didn’t know why Deimos was always in such a hurry to get it over with, didn’t know why the little Fighter always wanted it to hurt when all Abel wanted was for him to stop hurting. He made Deimos ride him slow, leaning him back to press a warm mouth over one of his nipples, place a feather-soft kiss on an old scar. The tiniest protest escaped Deimos’s throat, when Abel reached up and brushed the fringe out of his eyes, and made Deimos look at him, made him look at who was swelling inside him, as if he could somehow banish Cain from both their hearts like an unwanted ghost. He took in a sharp breath as he felt Deimos dig into his shoulders with blunt nails, bracing against the intimacy of it, but Abel was unrelenting, pressing them forehead to forehead and nose to nose, staring into his cloudy grey eyes until they were breathing together, moving together.


	46. for starrwinter

“No! I was here first!” Cain shouted, throwing back an elbow and blindly making contact with Abel’s ribs.

“Cain! Nnnghh! Give it to meee…” Abel grabbed his Fighter around the middle, tripping himself in the process of trying to throw Cain off balance. They both stumbled backwards, hitting the shower door with a clang as the toilet brush went flying through the air.

Cain regained his footing, too fast. Spun around and pinned Abel against the door, hands above his head. His breath was hot on Abel’s neck. “You get the fuck out of here or I’m going to fuck you with the fucking toilet brush!”

“ _Cain,_  it’s my turn!” Abel argued.

“Oh, no,” Cain taunted. “This isn’t about  _turns._  This is survival of the fucking fittest,” he hissed. “Whoever cleans, tops. You made the rules, and now you have to live with them.”

Abel frowned, struggling slightly against Cain’s grip. “I… just… didn’t expect you to be so enthusiastic about cleaning,” he stammered.

“I’m not,” Cain retorted. “I’m enthusiastic about  _fucking,”_ he said, leaning and pushing Abel even more against the door, thigh in between Abel’s legs.

Abel swallowed, claustrophobic with Cain in the small space, his dick getting a bit claustrophobic in his pants, too. “Well, um… maybe we could… come to some kind of compromise…” he tried.

“I have no reason to compromise,” Cain said low and dangerously into his ear. “When I’ve already beaten you…”

“Well,” Abel replied, voice cracking. “Maybe we could just… uhhh…” he let out a shuddery breath as Cain ran his tongue over his ear. “Maybe we could just skip the cleaning altogether and um… sixty-nine? Orsomething….?”

Cain pulled back and looked at him, thinking over it for only a moment before grabbing Abel’s arm and yanking him out into the room. Abel smiled to himself as they tore off each others’ clothes… he’d just wait until Cain was off his guard and then steal back into the bathroom, to claim the toilet brush that was rightfully his.


End file.
